The Premiere Jazz Museum in the United States. It is located in the historic
18th & Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri. The American Jazz Museum
preserves the history of the American Music: Jazz. The museum has exhibits
on Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and more. Items on
display include a saxophone owned by Charlie Parker and various Down Beat
awards. The Blue Room is a fully funtioning jazz club on site and the
Gem Theatre is a larger venue across the street hosting jazz music.

18th and Vine Historic District

The 18th and Vine District is a center of African American culture in
Kansas City, Missouri. In the 1980s, parts of the film Kansas City were
filmed there. Façades left from the movie remained on most of the
dilapidated buildings until the end of the 1990s. During the 1990s the
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum were opened.

Crown Center

Crown Center is a shopping and entertainment complex operated by the
Hallmark Cards corporation and located adjacent to the company's headquarters
in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. It features three levels of shops,
a set of open air fountains, an ice skating rink and overstreet walkways
leading to Kansas City's Union Station.

Country Club Plaza

The Country Club Plaza is the first suburban shopping district in the
US. Designed and constructed in Kansas City by businessman J.C. Nichols
in 1922, it was intended to accommodate shoppers who would arrive in automobiles.
The availability of filling stations, garages and parking lots was a central
theme in the layout of the Country Club Plaza.

The plaza was built in a swampy area of Kansas City known as Brush Creek
Valley. Nichols began acquiring land as early as 1907, and when his plans
were first announced the project was dubbed as 'Nichols' Folly'. Once
opened, the Country Club Plaza proved to be an immediate success, which
has lasted with little interruption to the current day.

The basic design of the plaza reflects European, and especially Spanish
influences. There are more than thirty statues and tile-laced murals on
display in the area as well as architectural reproductions, such as the
Giralda Tower of Seville, which is the tallest building in the Country
Club Plaza. On 'The Path of Golden Lights', there are also light standards
which were made from the same molds as San Francisco's Path of Gold lights.
Other works of art celebrate classical works of art, nature, and historical
American themes.

Union Station (Kansas City)

Kansas City Union Station is one of many train stations in the United
States bearing the name Union Station.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the Kansas City Terminal Railway,
a company controlled by the 12 railroads serving Kansas City, decided
that a new location was needed for the train depot. The location at the
time was prone to flooding by the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. A new location
was selected south of the central business district, above and away from
the floodplain. The architect chosen to design the building was Jarvis
Hunt, a proponent of the City Beautiful movement. The Beaux-Arts station
opened on October 30, 1914 as the third-largest train station in the country.

Liberty Memorial

Liberty Memorial, in Kansas City, is dedicated to the victory of liberty
over oppression, in World War I against the Axis.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is the major art museum in the Kansas
City Metropolitan Area, and is considered one of the finest smaller collections
in the country. The museum was opened in 1933 after bequests from the
estates of Kansas City Star publisher William Rockhill Nelson, schoolteacher
Mary Atkins, and others. Today, the museum is arguably best known for
its collection of Asian art, especially that of China. The museum also
has a large collection of ancient art, modern sculpture, European painting,
and other representative works from Africa and The Americas. The museum
has one of the most extensive collections of Henry Moore sculpture in
existence.

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City,
Missouri. The core of the museum's permanent collection is the Bebe and
Crosby Kemper Collection, a gift of the museum's founders. The collection
includes works created after the 1913 Armory Show to works by present-day
artists. Artists in the permanent collection include Dale Chihuly, Arthur
Dove, Louise Bourgeois, Andrew Wyeth, Fairfield Porter, Georgia O'Keeffe,
Frank Stella, Lesley Dill, Romare Bearden, Christian Boltanski, Robert
Mapplethorpe, Garry Winogrand, Kojo Griffin, Jim Hodges, Wayne Thiebaud,
and Hung Liu.

Airline History Museum

The Airline History Museum is located at the Kansas City Downtown Airport
in Kansas City, Missouri. It was originally known the "Save a Connie
Foundation" and is still incorporated under that name. It was founded
by former TWA employees.

Westport

Westport was the name of a town in Missouri, along the Missouri River
near Kansas City, Missouri. It was first settled by Reverend Isaac McCoy
and his family in 1831, platted three years later, and formally incorporated
in February 1857. The community thrived during the mid-1800s as an outfitter
for migrants traveling any of the four now-historic trails (Oregon, California,
Santa Fe and Lewis & Clark) which went through the area.

During the Civil War, there were many skirmishes between pro- and anti-slavery
groups in the area, including the Battle of Westport in October 1864.
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Civil War, Westport's role
as the starting point for migrants slowly declined, even as nearby Kansas
City grew. It was annexed by Kansas City in 1897. The present-day Westport
neighborhood is known as a center of entertainment and nightlife (including
blues music) in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

Worlds of Fun

Worlds of Fun is an amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri. It is most
noted for its roller coaster Mamba. Other notable rides include Boomerang,
Detonator, Rip Cord, Timberwolf, and Thunderhawk.

Downtown Kansas City

The Central Business District is centered around 10th and Main and includes
most of the large office buildings and corporate headquarters.

Quality Hill is in the west end of the business loop and was originally
developed as mansions to house the owners of the stockyards below. In
the 1980s it was one of the first Downtown areas to be successfully redeveloped.
It is now a very popular neighborhood with a mix of townhouses, apartments,
and Case Park.

The Garment District is just to the east of Quality Hill, across Broadway.
It originally housed the city's thriving textile industry. Its old industrial
buildings have since been redeveloped into loft apartments and offices.

River Market - the area between the freeway loop and the Missouri River.
Its old industrial buildings hold the City Market, a popular farmers market,
and numerous loft apartments, condos, and offices.

Columbus Park - a residential neighborhood just east of River Market.
A traditional home of Italian Americans, more recent immigrants include
Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians.

Government District - an area on the east side of the freeway loop centered
around Ilus Davis Park (The Civic Mall) that includes City Hall, Jackson
County Courthouse, Bolling Federal Office Building, Charles Whitacre US
Courthouse, and other government offices.

SoLo - short for South Loop, this area long targeted for an entertainment
district is now under development. Lining Truman Boulevard and I-670,
the district is bordered on the west by the H. Roe Bartle Hall Convention
Center and includes Municipal Auditorium, H & R Block's new headquarters
and the new 18,000 seat Sprint Center (the latter two under construction).

Crossroads Arts District - the area just south of the freeway loop is
the city's primary art gallery district.

Westside - just west and southwest of the freeway loop, this area is
the traditional center of the region's Hispanic community, primarily Mexican-Americans.
Southwest Boulevard is know for Mexican and Spanish restaurants.

West Bottoms - one of the earliest settlements in the area later become
home to the Kansas City Stockyards and the center of Mid-America's cattle
industry. Today the area is an industrial district full of giant old brick
warehouses and factories. It also houses the Kemper Arena and American
Royal complexes.